


Buzzfeed: Unresolved

by madamecrimson



Series: Anything Like That [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Watcher Entertainment, Watcher Entertainment Web Series)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Spoilers, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22478848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamecrimson/pseuds/madamecrimson
Summary: Spoilers for Watcher Weekly #004.It was time to film the 4th episode of Watcher Weekly. Since starting this company with Ryan and Shane, Steven had felt included in nearly every aspect; creative collaboration, finances, hard work, and he also felt like he was getting closer to Ryan as a friend, and really getting to know Shane as one as well. However, there was one aspect in which he did not feel included. Actually, it was an aspect in which he didn't even want to be included. It was something that the staff would joke about and Steven was dimly aware that the fans sometimes mentioned it too. He'd honestly thought it really was a joke until spending extended hours with Shane and Ryan revealed something to Steven that lingered just beneath the surface, threatening to break through.
Relationships: Background Shane Madej/Sara Rubin - Relationship, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej, background Ryan Bergara/Marielle Scott
Series: Anything Like That [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622158
Comments: 9
Kudos: 100





	Buzzfeed: Unresolved

They hadn't even begun filming yet and Steven had already noticed the heaviness in the atmosphere. He definitely appreciated the mixing up of the seating arrangements each week, at least initially. He thought it might give fans a more equal look at all three of them as individuals, instead of just being fixated on Shane and Ryan's dynamic from their Buzzfeed: Unsolved series. He was even touched that the fans encouraged this odd sort of musical chairs, wanting to ensure that he shared just as much of the spotlight as his co-creators. He truly felt that he did, that was never an issue. However, when they spoke in a group of three like this, even though the conversation between them was even, Shane and Ryan couldn't take their eyes off of one another. It was like some sort of invisible magnet was drawing them together and Steven was caught in the middle, the only thing preventing them from smashing into each other. 

As they begun filming, introducing the show and giving a brief summary of what they would be discussing, Steven felt the camaraderie between the three of them that he knew was there, everything that he appreciated about working with these two. But it didn't take long for that unspoken...thing to take hold, slowly spilling out among them. It didn't matter who was speaking. Ryan and Shane's gazes would always float back to one another as if some inevitable force was pulling at them both. Their eyes would light up, warm smiles would play across their faces. It was actually more odd to Steven that Ryan and Shane were *not* dating. One would make a joke and the other would follow, the weaving between their words almost effortless. 

Shane mentioned the change in Steven's hair color, and Ryan and Steven both jumped in on the conversation. And then, there was that noticeable shift. Steven mentioned not paying as much attention to himself as others when Shane decided to comment.

"I mean you do carry a mirror with you and stare at it," Shane said, pantomiming the action.

"You do do that, that is strange," Ryan agreed, smirking at Shane as Shane broke out into a chuckle. 

"I look at myself in the reflection of my coffee," Steven added, picking up his coffee mug and staring at it intently for dramatic effect. 

"He carries a little World War II mirror that he uses to look around corners and also look at himself," Ryan went on, repeating Shane's actions. 

The conversation then quickly shifted to Ryan's mustache, and Steven stared up blankly at the camera. Shane and Ryan's dynamic was a little easier to deal with off camera, when they didn't have the excuse of performance to hide behind. Steven tried to move things along by stating that they had been talking a lot about hair during this particular episode, only for moments later for Ryan to make it how obvious it was that he'd been starting at Shane.

"You do know you have a pen tangled in your hair," Ryan commented. Steven hadn't even noticed that. Had it been under the headband?

The show continued on as normal. Well, as normal as normal could be for any of them really. At some point, Ryan's arm wound its way around the back of the couch. "This is the closest I've ever been to Steven," Ryan said with an almost devious undertone to his voice. 

"Is it weird?" Shane returned almost immediately. 

"No it's not," Steven defended. "I play defense on you in basketball." 

"Yeah but you're never really in front of me," Ryan laughed. 

Shane then began inquiring about this aspect of the game as Ryan smugly rested two fingers on his own lips. 

"When you have to run D," Shane continued, with a pointed look to the camera, "on each other like that--" 

"Don't say run D on each other," Ryan warned, though he looked playfully at Shane. 

"No I love run D," Steven interjected, trying to shift the conversation, "run DMC." 

"Yeah yeah yeah," Shane dismissed. 

"Just don't say run D on each other," Ryan repeated. 

Steven tried to conceal his uneasiness with an awkward smile. Had Ryan just tried to make Shane jealous by implying that Steven was normally "behind him"? Steven had initially thought it was more of a jab at his own basketball skills, but when Shane Hates Sports Madej started asking about the game, that should have been his first clue that this whole conversation had been part of their little game of teasing at the line of their friendship but never crossing the threshold. This had been further confirmed for Steven when Ryan had repeated himself. 

Steven and Shane then awkwardly recreated what playing defense would look like in a game of basketball at Shane's request, only for Ryan to do an exaggerated impression of Steven falling over. Steven jokingly scoffed at Ryan's acting skills, trying to conceal his irritation. He'd been playing basketball for a long time and he was no stranger to a little on the court trash talk. But now he was wondering if Shane had requested this display to in turn make Ryan jealous. Ryan had been so focused on this interplay that when he stood up from the floor, he nearly knocked over his coffee mug. Steven managed to rescue it just in time and was thankful that it at least allowed for a good merch plug opportunity. 

Then, to Steven's relief, Shane switched to talking about Steven's new show that would be premiering that week. "Homemade" was a passion project and he had put a lot of work into it. Even though he could still see Ryan and Shane's gazes shifting back towards the other, he was appreciative that they gave him the time and space to talk about it, and had to admit that the two of them had been extremely encouraging and supportive throughout the whole process. Ryan then mentioned that fans would need to wait a week to see the episode, and Shane supplied the fact that it would be available earlier for their patrons. 

"All the shitheads out there need to wait," Ryan joked with a sly grin. Shane tried to keep a straight face as he looked at Ryan, but soon his expression bloomed into a smile, as if he couldn't help it. Steven continued to talk as his colleagues gazed at one another with downright dreamy looks in their eyes. Steven introduced the trailer for "Homemade" with a wave of his hand. 

After an awkward joke or two from Ryan, Steven went on to talk about the sponsor for "Homemade," assuring the audience of its necessity from a business perspective, and emphasizing his own unease with it. Thankfully, Shane and Ryan managed to stop their silent flirting during Steven's explanation. He noticed that they both seemed to be more focused when it came to him pitching ideas or talking about business parameters. He truly was appreciative of them both, and certainly felt like they had all gone into the creation of this company with equal investment in the company itself as well as one another. 

And he wasn't blaming his business partners for clearly having feelings for each other. It just didn't make sense to him why neither one of them did anything about it. They lived in LA. They'd worked at Buzzfeed for years. They all had plenty of friends that were LGBTQ+. So what was the big deal? Sure, they were both in relationships, but Sara and Mari are smart as hell, not to mention the fact that Sara had known the boys for years, and Mari could intuitively smell flirting from miles away. Open relationships were becoming increasingly common, no where more than LA. And, well, maybe Sara and Mari weren't polyamorous themselves, but they didn't really seem bothered by what was going on between Ryan and Shane. The guys did nothing to try to hide their flirting from their girlfriends, doing so right in front of them, and Steven could swear he'd seen Mari and Sara exchange knowing glances at one another at least several times when all five of them had been hanging out together. 

The episode went on, with Ryan strongly defending their use of a sponsor, and Ryan and Shane joking about the fact that they weren't going overboard with it, which made Steven relax about it a bit more. 

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Ryan started rubbing under his chin. "There's a hair that I missed and I can feel it." 

Steven offered to help him with it by pulling it out, and Ryan readily agreed. Shane on the other hand groaned in disgust, his voice raising several octaves as he cringed. He squeezed his eyes shut once, yet overall, even with his discomfort, his eyes still remained fixed on Ryan. 

"Out of all the combos we've had on the couch," Shane said later on, "I think this may be the worst." Steven laughed at that, only for Ryan to return the banter almost instantly. 

"Is it?" Ryan asked. 

"Maybe," Shane replied. 

"I don't know what you're saying. I'm just chilling here with my pal Steven Lin!" Ryan exclaimed, throwing an arm around Steven's shoulders an jostling him. 

Steven's eyes widened when he felt Ryan's hand on his leg. "Hand on my knee! Hand on my knee!" he yelled. 

"Now that I like!" Shane replied emphatically. 

The entire time this was happening, Shane and Ryan were looking right at one another, seeming overly excited and amused. When Steven would mull over it later, he realized something. Ryan had been using him as bait to make Shane jealous, again. He felt like some kind of pawn in their stupid game. As soon as Shane complained about their current seating arrangement, Ryan had jumped on it immediately, and Shane had batted back. Steven wasn't sure if Shane's comment about "liking it" meant that he was amused at the fact that Steven seemed not only unresponsive but uncomfortable with Ryan's sudden physical affection toward him, but he'd never seen Shane so animated before. Steven would soon come to the realization that the reason that Ryan had been showing this physical affection to him lately, was because he couldn't, or at least felt he couldn't, show it to Shane. Ryan was only ever like this toward Steven when Shane was around, when he could watch Shane's reactions. In any footage Steven had seen with Ryan and Shane together, they were either easily leaning toward one another, or stiffly remaining apart. 

Ryan then randomly started talking about the texture of Steven's hair, saying that Shane and he had thought that Steven's hair was soft, but that Ryan was surprised to find it was crunchy. As Ryan spoke, Steven decided to test his growing theories. He leaned toward Ryan to rub his hair against Ryan's neck, and he felt the other man subtly pulling away from him. Shane practically yelped his surprise at that revelation and then Ryan told him to feel the texture of Steven's hair. Steven leaned toward Shane for him to feel his hair, and Shane did briefly, before pulling away with an exaggerated reaction. It was almost like they didn't know what to do with themselves when they weren't in control of the game. 

Steven again reminded the audience to check out "Homemade" and still feeling self-conscious about his work, he asked Ryan and Shane what they thought of his first episode. He was grateful for Shane's compliments. 

"It's incredible. When I watched the first cut of it I felt a lot of emotions which I didn't expect. I was like it's a food show!" Shane replied earnestly, and that made Steven smile. 

"You've got to stop saying you feel a lot of emotions," Ryan taunted, though he spoke in more of a monotone. 

"I do, all the time," Shane returned, his voice softer and more defensive than it really needed to be. 

"That's the thing a robot says," Ryan said back, maintaining his tone of voice. 

"No I did," Shane defended, his voice growing a bit more high-pitched. It then dropped back to its normal range as he went on to talk about the cultural relevance and celebration of traditions that Steven's show would offer, and Ryan complimented its emotional depth. 

Steven agreed, and mentioned his desire for Asian representation in media. Then Ryan made some sort of joke about a car, or something? Steven wasn't really sure. But soon, Ryan was pantomiming driving a car, and Shane was providing a narration, the two of them just effortlessly in sync. 

"What is happening here?" Steven asked aloud. Shane didn't answer and instead moved the focus to their Q and A segment. 

"Also, while he's doing that," Ryan commented as Shane began pulling up questions from their social media, "can we just admire Shane's headband right now? He's out here looking like Rafael Madej." Shane smirked and went into a story about his Lyft driver's odd reaction to his headband, and then Ryan and Shane conversed back and forth excitedly, downright giggly in fact. Steven didn't know if it the story or Ryan's accompanying comments were all that funny on their own, but his co-founders seemed rather amused with and enthralled by the other. 

As they began reading through and answering the questions together, Steven noticed that it seemed to be growing harder and harder for Ryan and Shane to shift their attention away from each other. Shane could stare at Ryan and listen intently to Steven talking at the same time, but Ryan was not very good at multitasking, having to drop his gaze in order to pay closer attention. One of the questions referred to the most recent episode of Weird Wonderful World and quickly delved into a conversation about Ryan's comments about enjoying bone marrow. As the conversation went on, Steven noticed Ryan's gaze fall to Shane's lap. 

"What is the measurements--" Ryan began, holding up his two index fingers, starting intently at Shane's lap as if trying to estimate the length of one of his bones. 

"Of these?" Shane asked, his hand going to his thigh. "Of my--" Shane was cut off by the camera operator. "Cut!" 

Shane and Ryan looked over at him in confusion, but Steven already knew the reason. 

"Ryan," the camera operator began, "it looks like you're trying to measure Shane's--an inappropriate part of Shane's anatomy." 

Ryan chuckled. "I mean I know his legs are inhumanly long but--" 

"His dick. He means his dick," Steven said shortly. 

Ryan dropped his hands and an awkward silence fell over the set. In an effort to salvage the rest of the shoot, Steven changed the subject over to cannibalism, and to his relief the camera operator began rolling again. Steven briefly wondered what his life had become when talking about cannibalism was something that would salvage rather than derail a shoot. Steven mentioned that if he were to eat a human, the tastiest part would likely be the bone marrow. 

"No, the ass," Shane said, briefly placing a hand on his own ass. 

Ryan's index finger rested on his lips, a sultry expression on his face. Shane's cheeks flushed slightly as he continued his explanation, having to look away from Ryan. 

"Um the butt meat is supposed to--" Shane broke out into a nervous laugh. Ryan made a quip about it as Shane hurriedly apologized, rambling about how he'd seen something about it in a movie. He was practically squirming under Ryan's mischievous gaze. He quickly moved onto the next question. After another cannibalism comment from Ryan, a deeper blush and heartier laugh from Shane, and a defense from Steven that their company did not condone cannibalism, they were finally able to actually, move onto the next question. It was with regards to why both Shane and Ryan had mustaches in Weird Wonderful World. Shane had stated it was an interesting story, going into detail about how the decision was made when Ryan and he were both drunk at a party. 

"So at the beginning of this, you said it was an interesting story, so I'm still waiting," Steven interrupted flatly, sending Shane out of his seat and leaving Ryan speechless. Steven casually sipped at his coffee, smirking at their shocked reactions. He'd initially said it to speed things along, but seeing them react that way was priceless. 

They then got a question about the plants in their office. Steven agreed to retrieve the "spritzer" they used to water the plants. As he sat back down, Ryan and Shane agreed that Shane should demonstrate how the "spritzer" was used. Shane did so, with Ryan basically cheering him on with an unnecessary amount of enthusiasm. It was then mentioned that Ryan's standing desk had killed Shane's plant. Once again, it was Shane and Ryan engaged in intense banter, as Steven mildly redirected the episode back to an appropriate explanation for the audience. 

"First off," Ryan stated, "I'm a little sorry." 

Steven jerked his head toward Ryan, his jaw dropping in shock. "That's the first time you've ever admitted that!" Steven accused in a rush. 

"That's the first time I've ever heard you say you're sorry," Shane agreed. "That actually does have some value and I appreciate it." He glanced toward the camera. 

"Second off," Ryan went on. "It wouldn't have happened if you'd kept your stuff on your side of the desk." 

Shane started going into another gruff and animated reply before the shot was cut again and Shane moved onto the next question. It was from the Diplococcus. Steven was amused and they were all able to join in on joking about that. He noticed that when Shane looked away from Ryan, it was always toward the camera. Steven shifted the conversation once more to their Patreon and was thankful that they didn't need a long cut this time around to rein in Shane and Ryan. 

The next question Shane read was from a fan who had noted that Shane was eagerly participating in the seance they had done in their episode of Weird Wonderful World, and asked if his views on the Supernatural had changed. Steven noticed Ryan watch Shane with interest, Ryan's fingers tensing where they rested on his own knee, biting his lower lip. When Shane responded that the reason he didn't provide criticism at the time was that it wouldn't have been fun. Ryan once again rested his index finger on his lip, his eyes narrowing slightly as he regarded Shane with an air of suspicion. Shane continued rambling on in his own defense and his antics quickly had Ryan laughing. 

The next question was in regards to whether or not they would have a show with all three of them hosting. Shane indicated that they did on Watcher Weekly and Making Watcher. Steven suggested that it might be interesting to have a guest host on the latter. 

"Yeah, a guest host," Ryan repeated, a smirk playing on his lips as he turned his eyes to Shane's. "So, a ghost?" 

Shane looked back at Ryan, his face bearing a look of fond amusement. Their next question had Shane and Ryan launching into a debate about Marvel movies, and then soon Shane was wrapping up the show. 

"I do have a surprise for you all," Steven revealed. 

"What?" Shane asked in surprise, head whipping around to look at him. 

"I have a surprise for you all. I'm actually on Team Ryan, all day today, but I was incognito," Steven went on, trying to sound at least somewhat mysterious. 

"What are you talking about?" Shane asked flatly as Steven took off his jacket. "Oh, cause of the shirt?" 

Steven grinned as he looked over at Ryan's matching shirt. 

"That's the surprise?" Shane went on, sounding unimpressed. Ryan beamed, responding immediately.

"Oh look we're like two little peas in a pod now," Ryan squeaked, looking absurdly pleased with himself as he draped an arm around Steven's shoulders. "Who's that loser over there?" he said, indicating Shane. 

Shane looked away from Ryan again, straight into the camera. And Ryan knew. He was trying so hard not to burst into laughter. 

Steven tried to refocus the attention to their merch but between Shane's sardonic glare, and Ryan's ridiculous pose of a hand on his hip with an arm around Steven, it became almost too much. 

"Your arm is still on my shoulder," he pointed out, grateful for only a minute when Ryan pulled his arm away before Shane jumped in. 

"You guys are friends! Why do you always point that out?" Shane said. 

"Your hand is on my shoulder," Ryan mocked, doing a poor and robotic impression of Steven. Then Shane placed a hand on Steven's other shoulder. 

"We are hugging now," Ryan continued in that same tone. He went on and on in that voice, giving a literal and detailed description of drinking water. Steven saw the moment Shane began to ease as he dropped his hand from Steven's shoulder and laughed heartily. 

Steven felt exhausted from being caught up in this. "You know what it is, it's because people that you see ever day, you don't like give them a high-five every time you make--" 

"Me and Shane do," Ryan interrupted, holding out an arm and moving to stand. Shane moved to do the same. Steven, however, had had enough, moving between them and holding them apart with his hands. 

"Let us do our handshake, they're going to think it's so cool!" Shane protested, indicating the camera. Steven held firm in his position.

"Oh, I guess we can't do it," Shane lamented, dropping back into his seat. 

Steven rested his hands on his stomach. He'd been expecting more of a fight, somehow. 

With one last bit of banter or two, they had finally finished recording. Steven sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping as he stood to his feet. He was normally the most level-headed of the three, far less anxious than Ryan, and far less antagonizing toward Ryan than Shane. Shane had headed toward the bathroom and Steven felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hey man, why didn't you let us do the handshake?" Ryan asked, his tone more cheerful than Steven was in the mood for. 

"Well you guys didn't exactly put up much of a fight to stop me," Steven shrugged. He felt a sense of satisfaction as he watched Ryan blush, rendered speechless by Steven for a second time that day. 

Steven held Ryan's gaze for awhile, eyebrows raised in a knowing look before Steven turned on his heel and walked off. He didn't much like feeling like a pawn, and it was annoying to be caught up in something that he wasn't even involved with. However, he really did care for Ryan and Shane as people, as friends, and they were amazing to work with. As much as he wanted to and as much as it would make his life easier, he couldn't force the two to tell one another how each of them felt. 

So for now, this...thing, would remain unresolved.


End file.
